. at almost exactly this point in the presidential race of 1956, on october 29th, 1956, with the election that year coming up just a week later, israel invaded egypt. and they did it with the secret support of two major u.s. allies. france and england. it was a fight over control of the suez canal. the american president at that time, in 1956, was, of course, dwight eisenhower. republican. he was running for re-election against the democratic candidate that year, adlai stevenson. talk about an october surprise. that year it was eight days before election day. both candidates are forced to deal with an unexpected and genuine giant foreign policy crisis. >> on sunday the israeli government ordered total mobilization. on monday, their armed forces penetrated deeply into egypt and to the vicinity of the suez canal, nearly 100 miles away. and on tuesday, the british and french governments delivered a 12-hour ultimatum to israel and egypt, now followed up by armed attack against egypt. the united states was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions. nor were we informed of them
